The
Gigabyte Volar heatsink looks cool because it looks different. Perched at an
angle above the processor, the Volar's 120mm diameter smokey grey fan has
rather large
impeller blades that look as if they'll propel air into the cooling fins of its
donut shape heatsink with quiet force. Below, three heatpipes race from the copper base up
towards two distinct rings in the extruded aluminum fins, distributing heat over a
broad region.

Given the
space limitations on many motherboards around the CPU socket, the Gigabyte
Volar seems like a clever work around to accommodate a larger fan. At
the same time, the angled exhaust stream moves cooler air right onto toasty MOSFETs
where it certainly comes in handy. Yet, after a couple rounds of testing, FrostyTech
is left wondering if this really is a heatsink you should adopt, or one you
should avoid... The answer might surprise you, but first let's have a look at what
the Gigabyte Volar heatsink brings to the table.

Gigabyte's Volar (GH-PSV21-FB) heatsink is compatible with
socket 775 Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad/Extreme and socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+ AMD
Athlon64 processors. It ships with a small assortment of mounting hardware
that's easy to work with. A simple resistor cable allows users to jump between
two fixed fan speed settings, though neither is especially whisper quiet. It's
120mm fan rotates at 2000RPM or 1500RPM with the resistor. Constructed primarily
of a cylindrical extruded aluminum heatsink with heatpipes running around
inside, the Volar relies on these heat conducting devices to connect its small
copper base to the rest of the cooler. The Gigabyte Volar heatsink weighs 640
grams and retails for about $40USD.

Since
this is Frostytech, let's take a close look at some of the design elements of
the Gigabyte Volar heatsink. For starters, there are a lot of potential benefits
to an angled fan orientation - 45° in this case - far to many to go over here.
The crux of it is that motherboard components around the processor socket are
now getting so hot they require passive cooling. Rather than slap little fans
all over the place, motherboard manufacturers anticipate a steady stream of air
from the CPU heatsink to do the job of keeping MOSFET devices cooled. The
Gigabyte Volar will do this, on three sides.

Heatpipes. It's almost a written rule that any heatsink
worth its salt will use heatpipes. The Gigabyte Volar heatsink has three 6mm
diameter copper heatpipes; two short ones connecting the base to the center of
the extruded aluminum heatsink, and one long heatpipe that wraps around within
the circumference of the heatsink before returning to the base. All heatpipes are
soldered to the 5mm thick copper base, but on the opposite end thermal adhesive
is used... and a great quantity of it.

This is
where the Volar starts to loose its shine, the placement of the heatpipes is
peculiar.

The two
short heatpipes go into a 9.5mm thick 50mm diameter ring of aluminum, and are
held in place with aluminum wedges and thermal adhesive. Seems logical, except
these heatpipes are running parallel to the
bifurcated aluminum fins that radiate outward, not perpendicular.